We can actually see up to date pictures of footballers in the 2006
World Cup finals on newspaper websites and the like, without getting sued for image rights by the
Fifa Media Services DepartmentFIFA World Cup - restrictions lifted for web media World football's governing body,
FIFA and the World Association of Newspapers,
WAN, today announced that they had reached an agreement to lift all restrictions on digital publication of photographs of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.
The agreement came after a private meeting between the FIFA President, Joseph S. Blatter, and the Chief Executive Officer of WAN, Timothy Balding, who was also representing a coalition of leading news agencies, including Agence France-Presse, Associated Press, Reuters, Getty Images, DPA and EPA.
Mr Blatter said: "Our talks were constructive and reflected FIFA's intent to come to a mutually beneficial solution. Today, almost all print media of relevance have their own web edition and reader preferences increasingly underline a shift in consumer habits to access topical information."
"We understand that the publication of images and text must be treated with the same approach for the sake of maintaining a transparent information management policy that respects the freedom of the press."
"I am satisfied that we have been able to amend the earlier position taken and thus recognise WAN's justified requirements."
"I look forward to an open and ongoing dialogue in the future. In order to avoid future misunderstandings, I have invited WAN to nominate a member to sit on the FIFA Media Committee, where relevant matters pertaining to media relations are discussed openly and constructively".
FIFA Past Media Stance
In order to respect contractual obligations to its rights holders, FIFA had originally limited the number of photographs that could be published on the web and required that they only be published two hours after games ended. WAN and the coalition of news agencies had opposed the restrictions on the grounds that they interfered with the media's freedom to report.
Last February FIFA insisted that no photos be published on websites until after the final whistle of matches and limited the number of web published photos to five per match half and two for extra time, including penalty shoot-outs.
FIFA had also disallowed alteration of pictures in print editions that could obscure any World Cup sponsor logo, restricted news websites to using still pictures, and allowed only five images for the opening and closing ceremonies.
Posted at 3:40 PM, Tuesday, March 14, 2006
